After a resounding victory over Venezuela in their Pan Am Games opener, the United States men looked even more impressive in romping to a 102-70 victory over defending champion Puerto Rico.
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It’s only going to get tougher for the United States men’s basketball team at the 2015 Pan American Games. Playing at 9 p.m. Friday and then 1:30 p.m. Saturday did little for the Brazilians’ energy. But once we get easy shots, then our 3-ball starts to fall.
Keith Langford led the way offensively for the U.S. with 17 points, making all eight of his shots from the foul line, with Bobby Brown (16 points), Taurean Prince (16) and Anthony Randolph (15) also reaching double figures.
Bahner finishes eighth – Former Wichita State athlete Austin Bahner finished eighth in the decathlon in the Pan Am Games in Toronto. We were trying to get our guys to push it, and get it in the open floor and create early offense that way.
Closing the second stanza with 3-pointers from Wilkins and Bobby Brown (Dongguan Leopards, China/Los Angeles, Calif.), the USA took a 65-29 lead to the locker room.
Brazil is ranked ninth in the world while the Dominican Republic is No. 19, although the numbers don’t mean that much here since not all the teams have all their top players. In a 15-point win over Venezuela, Batista scored 11 points and grabbed five rebounds. “We just have to stay disciplined and play our type of basketball”. The U.S. missed a scoring opportunity with a turnover, and fittingly, Benite sealed the game with his final 3-pointer that came with 28.6 seconds left to make the score 93-83.
The USA’s 102 points marked the first time a U.S. Pan American Games squad had scored 100 or more points since the Americans defeated Mexico, 104-80, in 1995, a string of 24 games.
When the US takes on Brazil tonight, it will be unique experience, as Mark Few will be coaching against JP Batista.
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“I just thought we handled the pressure well”.
